The Executive Director of the Armah Institute of Emotional Justice (AIEJ), Esther Armah, has called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to introduce strict, consequence-driven safeguards to address sexual violence in schools, insisting that officials who fail to act on reported cases must face disciplinary sanctions.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Press, Ms Armah said appeals to morality alone had failed to protect students, particularly girls who experience sexual harassment, assault and rape.
“As long as there is no consequence to inaction, what is the incentive to act? You cannot say the incentive is morality, because you see again and again that people don’t act,” she said.
She described sexual violence in schools as a widespread problem across Ghana’s 16 regions and cautioned against allowing policy reviews to delay urgent action. Instead, she called for immediate penalties against officials who were reportedly informed about incidents but failed to intervene.
According to her, sanctions should have tangible consequences, including financial penalties and damage to professional standing, to ensure that school authorities take reports seriously.
“You must lose money. You must lose standing. You must lose the things that will make you pay attention the next time,” she stressed.
Ms Armah warned that sexual violence could severely affect victims’ education, emotional well-being, relationships and future choices, with some girls abandoning school because they lack support.
She linked the normalisation of sexual harassment in schools to similar misconduct in workplaces, arguing that a culture of impunity encourages offenders to believe they can act without consequences.
She also raised concerns about what she described as a “cultural non-disclosure agreement”, where families and community members allegedly pressure victims and their relatives, sometimes through financial inducements, to withdraw complaints.
Ms Armah insisted that the collapse or withdrawal of a case should not erase the trauma experienced by victims.
“The healing of the girls is paramount,” she said, calling for sustained emotional and psychological support regardless of whether cases result in prosecution or conviction.
As part of her proposed reforms, she called for clear, standardised reporting procedures for sexual violence across the education sector, supported by nationwide education campaigns and training for students, teachers, school administrators, security personnel and other stakeholders.
She further proposed that the guidelines be made available in multiple Ghanaian languages and specify penalties for officials who fail to respond appropriately to allegations.
For the long term, Ms Armah advocated targeted training for men to encourage them to intervene when they witness or learn about sexual violence, rather than remaining silent.
She said Ghana’s education authorities must move beyond policy statements to enforceable safeguards that protect students, hold offenders accountable and ensure that no report of sexual violence is ignored.